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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29620728">dreamcatcher</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ganyun/pseuds/ganyun'>ganyun</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>:), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Derealization, Graphic Description, Hurt No Comfort, Manipulation, POV First Person</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:46:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29620728</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ganyun/pseuds/ganyun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s late noon, Ranboo.”</p><p>You felt yourself break at the place you found yourself in; and <i>who’d</i> you’d found yourself with.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>No Romantic Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. shimmer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A sparkle, a glimmer. Purple-hued droplets slipping from the moist obsidian of the cage you were in. Lava burned hot before you; and solid material made of only the strongest ore kept you from reaching into the lava; kept you from feeling. Kept you from <i>dying.</i> (Stop thinking those thoughts.)</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>A prisoner?</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>No. Not a prisoner. A captive; a captive of your own mind. A captive of the one who refuses to let up with you; the one who’s always two steps ahead. He too was a captive of his own mind; you’d come to realise too late. His voice: it always was there, wasn’t it? Probably. You didn’t care.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
The obsidian above that slicked the stone beneath you with its tears continued to cry for your loss, the loss of <i>you.</i></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>short chapters for those of u who struggle w long chapters ily sm mwah</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. sparkle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You’d see your own face for the first time after crying over the cauldron; mixing your warm, salty tears with the greyed water within. <i>Who’s there, in the reflection?</i> you’d ask. Your voice was wobbly, and your words were all crooked. It'd 've been best if you kept your mouth shut; you’d realise. The weak formation of a trademark smile on your face in the water made your face twitch.<br/>
He’s always smiling, always thinking. When will you let <i>me</i> smile, Dream?<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
A laugh from somewhere in your mind, and that sparkle again. That chime; that jingle. Made you curl tighter against all but yourself at night, made the popping of the lava and the drops of the obsidian so <i>much louder.</i></p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p><i>A prisoner,</i> the voice wavered.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p><i>A prisoner of his own mind,</i> it went. <i>The one that can’t escape.</i></p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p><i>Not a captive, but a prisoner. A wrongen, an evildoer.</i> He made your mind wander to the worst places.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>That night, you bit the thin covers between your fangs and held back the tears; you knew it’d feel good to cry. But you didn’t want to burn, you didn’t want to melt in a small puddle of your own feelings, to drown and lose yourself in the landscape your mind had set you out on, alone. (But you weren’t alone.)<br/>
The words that curled around your throat and the vision of an all but permanent smile on your face choked you to sleep.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p><i>A prisoner,</i> you reminded yourself.</p><p><br/>
</p><p>(His prisoner.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>:3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. shine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bright orange of the lava had never looked paler, you thought; (<i>pondered,</i> even. Your thoughts weren’t even yours, here.). Books stayed empty and stacked within the chest to your right and the cage of obsidian had become even more cold, lifeless.<br/><br/><br/>Nobody had come to visit, not even one. No voices, no idle chatter. Only <i>you</i> and <i>him.</i><br/><br/><br/>The lava popped and hissed incessantly as you stared blunt into the floor. Had it been days? Weeks? <i>Months?</i> You couldn’t tell. The sparkle you used to hear from the obsidian had faded into the murky sludge that time had become to you. The cries of the rocks; the tears, all of it felt too much, too <i>real.</i> And you? You didn’t feel real.<br/><br/><br/>Your thoughts drifted, and drifted. Until they landed on him. (Again.)<br/><br/><br/>The reflection you saw all that time ago— the smile and the thoughts. The face and the voice. Him, <i>Dream</i>. The one who belittled you in your panic room, the one who held your gaze incessantly at the community house. He who feared nothing; he who was always so, <i>so</i> many steps ahead. <i>Far</i> too many steps ahead.<br/><br/><br/>He was  <i>Dream</i>, and you were his  <i>prisoner.</i> The concept made you wince, flinch even. Though you had to accept it— no such bargain could get you out of the pit he’d dug for both of you. (He’d dug it at his own expense, and at the expense of your life, too.)<br/><br/>A fleeting moment, then suddenly, the voice in your head felt more real than you did.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>:)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. shatter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You cried for the first time in years that night. Your skin burned and ached as the hot tears that streaked down your face kept coming with no remorse. You cried until the skin under your eyes was raw, and still kept doing so from both the pain inside and out. A simple combination of loneliness, madness, insanity and wandering brought you here— the moment you’d awaited in fear from day one. It pushed you over and you stumbled, falling and falling in the deep pit that was your remorse you’d felt since day one.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
Why are you doing that?<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
Tears stopped dripping from the surface of the rock above you, the lava stopping its movement in its tracks.<br/>
The pain stopped at some point after, but the sensation of the droplets eating through your skin still ensued from your previous tears. The stinging didn’t feel right. Though you were in slight agony; something,  <i>somewhere </i>— felt wrong.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
What  <i>are </i> you?<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
Another shimmer, a sparkle, and the dissonance of crystals shattering and breaking against the coarse obsidian floor. You covered your ears as you cried out at the sound. The world began to spin, the warp of everything contorting your vision of your limbs and bending them all the wrong way.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
The screams of your people and the cries of ghasts— seeing no image to accompany the sounds as your panic only <i>increased.</i> (They sounded like they were all in pain, too.) You couldn’t wipe the smiling expression from your face, your jaw locked and your teeth muffling the screams of pain you let out.<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
And then you were back, greeted by the rawer, more solid obsidian of a different room, a chest, and a figure before yourself.<br/>
<br/>
<i>“It’s late noon, Ranboo.” </i><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
You felt yourself break at the place you found yourself in; and <i>who’d</i> you’d found yourself with.<br/>
A splintering pain bloomed upon the surface of your cheeks.<br/>
You were crying. (But for <i>real,</i> this time.)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>done!! short project of mine that i worked on in class :0 <br/>trying to improve my writing whilst remaining vague ! !</p></blockquote></div></div>
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